For the first time an event similar to the famous Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain is coming to California. Thousands of runners are expected to run with the bulls in the Alameda County Fairgrounds next weekend. But the event is not without controversy. Jodi Hernandez reports.

(Published Wednesday, July 16, 2014)

“It’s a frivolous lawsuit,” said Rob Dickens, CEO of the Great Bull Run. “They are claiming a lot of crazy things, including that we are abusing our bulls. If we were whipping and hitting our bulls, somebody would have taken pictures. Animal abuse is a much more dangerous crime than running bulls down a quarter-mile dirt course.”

There have been eight Great Bull Runs since the event's debut in Richmond, Virginia, in August 2013, with the most recent tour being held in Chicago last week.

We have 28 bulls each running a quarter of a mile – we don’t hit them or shock them or do anything to make them run, they are just trained to runRob Dickens, CEO of the Great Bull Run

Usually 5,000 to 8,000 people show up for each event, as do animal rights protesters.

Liebman said California law prohibits animals from fighting with each other or with humans as well as anything that causes them pain and suffering.

Dickens denies that his event is a bull fight.

“We have 28 bulls each running a quarter of a mile – we don’t hit them or shock them or do anything to make them run, they are just trained to run,” he said. “We’ve had zero injuries of our bulls so far.”

Dramatic Photos: Pamplona Bull Run

The runners haven’t been as lucky, unfortunately.

“We get two to four injuries per event – it’s nothing serious,” Dickens said.

But Liebman said, during the events, as many as three dozen panicked bulls are chased by riders on horseback down a narrow track filled with hundreds of people – many of them drunk.

“The animals can trample runners, crash into barriers or fall and break their own legs trying to get away,” Liebman said, adding that one of their investigators saw runners “punching and flapping the bulls” at a Florida event.

The risk of getting gored is part of the allure for a lot of people, he said.

"Rodeo bulls perform almost every weekend and have somebody strapped to their back kicking them with metal spurs – that's not considered abuse, rodeos are legal in California," Dickens said.